The way Dean Gentz sees it, the odds of hitting the lottery are better than finding space debris on his property in Buna, about 36 miles north of Beaumont in Jasper County.

He didn't play the lottery, but Gentz hit the jackpot with the discovery last month of what he believes is debris from a NASA rocket.

"I picked this thing up on my pasture on Feb. 28, and in my mind I figured it was a kid's toy that blew across my pasture from the neighbors," said Gentz, 45, who has a 40-acre spread.

When he picked up the spherical object, he said, that theory dissolved.

"It was lighter than I had expected it to be," said Gentz, an electrician. "It has a plug screwed into one end of it, and on the opposite end, there a big melted piece of debris on it."

The metallic object is about 14 inches in diameter, 43.25 inches in circumference, and weighs about 16 pounds, he said.

Gentz, who works at BASF Corporation in Port Arthur, made use of his company's specialized equipment to test the metal.

"It came back as Titanium 6Al-4V, which told me that it was definitely from the aerospace industry," he said. "I know that titanium is very expensive and the only people that would logically pay that much would be the aerospace industry."

Gentz said the object appears to be a pressurized tank used to push fuel from a rocket during a launch. He said a neighbor who lives about a mile north of his spread also found a similar object on his land.

Officials at NASA could not be immediately reached for comment.

"I've found kids' toys and balloons out here, but that's about it," Gentz said. "My co-workers tell me that I'm about 20 times more likely to hit the Lotto than to find space debris. I guess playing the lottery is the next step."